Much ado

I can honestly say that I’m completely surprised at the overreaction concerning the cover of the New Yorker depicting a militant Michelle Obama and a Muslim Barack Obama, for a very obvious reason. It was satire. I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t funny, but the day where people start bitching about satire (in this case mostly on my side) is not a good day. Don’t get me wrong, I support Barack Obama for president (by default, I’ve been considering paying to create t-shirts which say “Barack Obama”… We could do worse.”), and I do find it staggering that a) people think Barack Obama is a Muslim, b) that they at the very least think he was raised Muslim (both facts that he’s refuted), and c) that people actually think that his religion is important (I couldn’t care less whether a presidential candidate is Muslim, Christian, or even Morman… as a rational human, I vote on whether I think a person will do the best job. That’s it. This should be less of a contest to prove you’re closer to god, and more about simply crafting a vision with regards to how you’re planning to run the country). On an aside, while Barack Obama is clearly running a better campaign than did John Kerry, I’ve seen nothing to convince me that a hypothetical president Kerry wouldn’t have been better than a hypothetical president Obama (the only time of John Kerry’s life where he didn’t embrace the fact that he was a liberal/progressive was when he had Democratic strategists telling him to… that was a stupid decision, but Obama is more legitimately center than was Kerry, and we don’t need another Bill Clinton passing things like Welfare reform under the Democratic Party label… though Clinton wasn’t all bad, just not great either). I digress, and quite a bit. Anyway, do we really think the people who actually believe all of these perceived negatives and actual falsehoods about Obama are going to be more convinced by seeing the cover of the New Yorker? Liberals are becoming huge pussies, and this is often why we lose elections. Admit it’s satire and if it’s important to you, reaffirm the truth and move on with your life. Lots of people I normally agree with are giving this much more media exposure than it would have had if we had just treated it like it should have been treated (which is to say like satire). You think people care what the New Yorker is doing? I’m politically left and I don’t care what they’re doing. Jonathan Alter made a good point about our responsibility to low information voters. That being the case, shouldn’t we treat a joke like a joke and simply present the facts to them? Let’s try to steer the conversation back to things that might actually tell us something about the candidates.

I think it might be a good sign that Governor Schwarzenegger would apparently accept a job in an Obama cabinet, because it suggests that the RINOS might not just vote down a party line. I think we had Lincoln Chaffee a while ago, but when people like this who are left leaning on quite a few issues (Chaffee on a good many, including being more liberal than Obama on gay marriage for instance), than we might see the more moderate Republicans cross over as well. I don’t think Obama was the best candidate the Democrats fielded, but I do think he’s the best we can do now. If we’re ever going to create a system where the third parties have a chance, it’s sure as hell not happening this time. (Though Bob Barr’s insane ass presents an intriguing x-factor. I think liberals learned their lesson in 2000, but the evangelicals haven’t had this dilemma yet).

It was spectacular to watch the Governor of South Carolina (Mark Sanford) completely choke when asked to present a difference between the Bush economic policies of the last 8 years and McCain’s current economic strategy (though I use the term loosely). If you haven’t seen this, it’s fantastic. We know one guy who killed any real chances of being named McCain’s VP.

It’s not even new that Scarborough has been criticizing Bush, but having seen him on Bill Maher a good many times, he is certainly no darling to the left. Anyone would suggest otherwise is being lazy.

John Venrick on Sean Hannity: “Maybe you whine too much, you fucking douche.” I was a little surprised that even Newt called him on his shit though.

Enough has been said about Phil Graham’s comments that I will simply point out that they’re completely detached from reality and move on.

Rachel Maddow has been an excellent fill in for Olbermann, and I think it’s high time we get her a show following Abrams on MSNBC. I like Keith but we don’t need Countdown 3 times a night.

I can’t remember if I had posted since Obama’s FISA flipflop (in my opinion, his first which actually matters… I don’t give a shit about public financing right now, we can fix it when we’re not gutting the Constitution, here with the help of Obama), but read the parenthetical and now I have.

Sometimes I like to be reminded that Jesse Ventura is kind of insane. It’s not that he’s not running. It’s the reason he gave. Particularly the bit about surfing. Plus he’s for a flat tax, which I suppose is fantastic if you’re rich.

I know Andrew Sullivan was posting this because he liked what was said, but the fact that a good many people who aren’t religious won’t call religion on its shit when it’s fucking up the planet is what’s wrong with some atheists and agnostics and a good many left leaning religious folk. These people are providing cover for hate mongers and ignorant assholes, and we shouldn’t treat them to a different standard because they claim to believe fucked up things because it’s what their invisible man in the sky would want them to think.

No Obama didn’t win the Midwest by being progressive, he won it by being slightly left of center, which is where he is and where a large amount of the Midwest is too. I lived in the Midwest for a while, and progressive is certainly not the way I would describe much of it (Excluding your Columbus, Chicago and the like).

No Daily Show links this week. I’m out.

One more thing I forgot. Tony Snow often seemed like an arrogant buffoon, but at the same time, he was a guy who seemed not completely soul dead. Rest in peace (which is an odd thing coming from someone who pretty much doesn’t believe in an afterlife).